Chancay: Megaport could postpone its delivery until 2025

The collapse of one of the central structures of the Chancay megaport has put the entire national logistics and commercial transport chain on alert about a project that has even multiplied the value of agricultural land in Huaral.

The investment of the megaport in its first stage amounts to US$1,213 million (not including IGV), while in its final conception it will exceed US$3.6 billion. All this, at the rate of mobilizing 1 million TEUs (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Unit, containers up to 20 feet by its English translation) annually and keeping at least 30% of the cargo that Callao currently mobilizes.

The megaproject, as such, is carried out in stages: the first is developed in an area of ​​141 hectares and includes the construction of an access road interchange from the Pan American Highway north to the vehicular port, the connection tunnel with the operational area and the entrance complex. Company sources consider that if it is not reactivated quickly, the terminal could only be launched in 2025.

All this, with the aim of making Peru a regional hub thanks to a terminal with the capacity to receive container ships (carrying 18,000 containers), and with which it was expected to carry around 50% of the almost US$580,000 million that move each year in trade between China and South America.

Precisely, the location of the now partially collapsed tunnel was angular for the delivery of works in the third quarter of 2024. The progress of works reported up to April was 40%.

For Favio Leon Lecca, president of the Peruvian Association of Port Operators (Asppor), the rectification of damages by the responsible Cosco Shipping Ports —in alliance with the Volcan mining company— should divert the compass on one of the strategic works of Peru in the last decade and which is intended to enhance commercial competitiveness compared to other ports in the Pacific. Above all, because a direct route is offered from Shanghai, unlike the stopovers with Callao.

“Peru has Callao as one of the few ports that concentrates 88.8% of the cargo nationwide and that has generated a series of collateral problems. Despite the fact that there was a vertiginous growth with the movement of containers, this was not proportionally accompanied by the infrastructure, and for this reason we have a great problem of congestion on cargo flows, ”he said.

Complaint Corollary

However, the work has been the center of criticism since the beginning of its construction, due to environmental and social impacts that multiplied from the constant changes in plans.

The National Environmental Certification Service for Sustainable Investments (Senace) itself warned of the existence of “dissatisfaction with the project due to property damages made.” This, due to the fact that the works are carried out very close to wetlands, in addition to generating the weakening of houses with vibrations that the consortium itself recognized in documentation related to the change in the EIA.

A new Silk Road to connect in 15 days

The first dock was to be completed in 2023, although the commercial start-up date set the last quarter of 2024 as the start date.

The tunnel that connects the entrance complex with the port operational area constitutes a segregated and exclusive road corridor for cargo transit related to the port operation of Cosco Shipping.

Peru has 61 ports, of which Callao, Paita and Pisco stand out in terms of exports made via maritime transport.

The Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) estimated that the megaport will reduce maritime transport from Peru to China by 15 days, because a direct route to the Asian continent will be opened.

Data

ships. 91% of exports in Peru are carried out through maritime transport.

Container. Imports from China reached an average freight rate of US$217 per ton in 2022.

Sheets. Collapse occurs in days that the MTC was preparing a legislative initiative to promote maritime transport.